Pain D’Avignon ready to rise again

TBP

Thursday

Apr 24, 2008 at 2:00 AMApr 24, 2008 at 11:00 PM

Pain D’Avignon is ready to rise again nearly six months after a devastating fire closed its cramped but highly successful bakery in Hyannis.

READY TO ROLL – Owners Vojin Vujesevic and Toma Stamekovic are waiting on a final permit for the bakery operation and the go-ahead to start construction on the retail shop at Pain D’Avignon’s new location.

Bakery has room to grow at new Hyannis location

Pain D’Avignon is ready to rise again nearly six months after a devastating fire closed its cramped but highly successful bakery in Hyannis. The almost-completed bakery at the new location, 15 Hinckley Road, still has clear views of the airport, but the larger facility is both an opportunity for growth and an added burden for the immediate and more pressing future. It’s a future very much dependent on the customers of the past coming back. The business outgrew its quarters on Airport Road some time ago, according to owners Vojin Vujesevic and Toma Stamekovic, but the bakery settled into those cramped quarters and made it work for its customers and employees. The proposed expansion of Barnstable Municipal Airport put the building the bakery leased for 14 years on a list of properties to be leveled for a new parking lot. Finding a new location that met its needs in size, location and cost was difficult. Vujesevic and Stamekovic thought they might have to take its business and 67 employees out of Hyannis for less expensive accommodations. “We never wanted to leave Hyannis,” Vujesevic said, but there were limited opportunities. The airport threat passed last summer as the terminal project was ramped back in size and scale. With the relocation threat over, the company got back to business. “We were all set in that location,” Vujesevic said. “We came to a point where everything was perfect.” And then came Nov. 7, 2007, when a fire that employees thought they had extinguished reared back and gutted the bakery after everyone had gone home. The Hyannis operation was out of business, but with the help of a sister bakery in Long Island it was not without options. It leased space there and sent employees to work the New York ovens. “We never lost a single day of deliveries,” Stamekovic said. The bakery did have to choose, though. With limited production and transport capabilities, the owners were forced to pick which accounts they’d maintain as they rebuilt. They needed steady business and dependable payments, which they found in the larger, off-Cape restaurants and casinos that offer their products. Even in the good times, they understand how things work on Cape Cod, with a limited season of plenty and long months of carry-over accounts waiting to be made whole. It’s a cycle they know well, but with a new lease that’s two to three times higher and the need to reestablish its client base they’re hoping they will see their Cape customers return. It’s those relationships that Vujesevic and Stamekovic will rely on when the renewed bakery goes back into full operation, which could be as early as next week. “We had an almost comfortable rent,” Vujesevic said. “Now we’re in big trouble.” As the bakery readies to reemerge, Vujesevic and Stamekovic understand the tentative economy they’re opening into. They’ve tried to maintain contact with their customers through Web site updates and phone calls. But they also know that other bakeries have been serving some of their accounts and trying to establish longer-term, less expensive arrangements. Vujesevic believes that Pain D’Avignon’s products speak for themselves in quality, but that quality comes at a price. “It’s like having a Mercedes. They’re great cars, but if no one buys them…” Vujesevic said. Bakers across the country are reeling from a tripling in flour costs. A combination of farmers switching to corn to feed the ethanol market and a blight year for wheat are driving increases that will be felt across the spectrum, from pasta to hand-crafted artisan bread. “We can’t afford it right now,” Vujesevic said, pointing to the empty spot where the fourth oven will eventually go. Insurance covered much of the move, but not everything. While there’s hesitation about the market, there’s confidence that their past relationships will see customers return. Restaurants are opening up and making arrangements for the season to come, and Vujesevic and Stamekovic want to be in a position to start serving their former clients as soon as possible before they miss out on needed commitments. Within the next couple of weeks, work should be fully under way on the larger retail operation attached to the bakery. More seats, more offerings and a larger outside patio are planned and designed. Retail customers are still finding their way to the new location seeking a loaf or sandwich. That offers both hope and some frustration that the new facility isn’t ready. All 67 employees were kept on payroll. Some spent months in Long Island hotels away from their families working at the sister bakery to keep the bread rolling to those select accounts. “I hope that when we start we’ll need all of them,” Vujesevic said. The hope for the coming week or two is to secure all of the final permits and sign offs. After that, the hope is simply to get back to business. Building commissioner Tom Perry said that the only remaining permit is for the ovens, which are not recognized by the state. He said the bakery should be good to go once that’s in place.

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